bee creative

From the pantry: dried apples.

One of the most important things I think I've learned about eating local over the last year, is the importance of having food stored for the time of the year when there are less local foods to choose from. 

As the season of having so many more food choices approaches, I'm thinking a lot about what I want to preserve, how much to save and how to preserve it.  It's also shaped what food crops are being grown in the garden. 

The apple muffins are a great example of something done right.  For these muffins I used apples from my tree that I had dried last summer.   To use them for baking I soaked the apples in boiling water, diced them and then added them (and some local walnuts) to my favorite muffin recipe.  Very yummy.  The spread is locally made goat cheese.  I was told by the cheese maker that it freezes very well!   

The apples have also been very tasty in oatmeal.  I've been dicing them and then adding the apples at the beginning of the cooking time for the oats.

Drying more apples is definitely on the "To-do" list.    

As I walk to work....

Sweet Potatoes in the garden

Sweet potatoes were my plant of choice for The Growing Challenge hosted by Elements in Time.   And here they are!

I'm growing Georgia Jets that were ordered from Irish Eyes.  Not my first choice, but what was available.  Probably for the best as they are the variety with the shortest days to maturity.  They arrived as a bundle of slips and with a sheet of instructions.  The weather was still really cold at night when they came, so I decided  to soak them in a little water overnight and then planted them in 4 inch containers so that they could be easily brought in and out (like the tomatoes).    When the night time temperatures started hitting a low of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit ( please let it stay there, please), they were planted up to 5 gallon black plastic containers.  They are going to live on the back porch- the hottest, sunniest spot in the garden.  Now I have to hope for about 90 days of warm weather.

Inspire Me Thursday - Whimsy

Inspire Me Thursday

I've been sitting out on my porch watching the wind catch the dandelion seeds and blow them into the air today.

I thought about wishes and enjoyed the way the individual seeds glistened as they floated up, up and away.  I tried not to think about future weeds to pull or about how lazy I was being.

Made me think of one of my favorite books, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.  I thought I'd save some of that magic for another day when I might need to be reminded:

“Dandelion Wine.  The words were summer on the tongue.   The wine was summer caught and stoppered.   And now that Douglas knew, he really knew he was alive….”

Ray Bradbury

A few pictures of the vegetable garden

Cut-and-come again lettuce in a hanging basket.

Teeny-tiny asparagus.

Potatoes in a trash can.

Inspire Me Thursday - Crayons

One of my favorite things to do with crayons is to make rubbings. 

All victory gardens should include flowers!

I think this captures the weekend the best...glorious yellow sunshine, well, a "Lady Banks" rose. 

So much happening in the garden:

*Planted out most of the tomatoes.
*Planted my sweet potatoes in containers.  They look rather sad.
*Still hilling up the potatoes.
* Assembled one huggelkultur.  Tomorrow I'll plant the winter squash I've started indoors. 
*Weeded my asparagus bed.  I found one teeny-tiny stalk coming up.  It's the first year for this bed so it won't be harvested. 
*Figured out where  to put the lavender and two rosemary plants that need a home.
*Observed a lot of bees working in the garden.   Hoping that there are enough flowers blooming to keep them happy! 

The to-do list is even longer unfortunately.   More weeds to pull, more seeds to plant (cucumbers, beans, and summer squash), and some mulching to do.  I have a stash of cardboard I'm going to put around the blueberries. 

Something else that is making me very happy in the garden:

I've waited four years for my tree peony to bloom.  Here's the first blossom.

Something beautiful in the morning -walking

Yesterday was "Bike to Work day."  I'm still uncomfortable biking so I'm walking most of my commute right now.  The other part I bus.

Walking makes me feel good.  And I get to see beautiful things like this....

It's a dogwood, possibly the variety "Kousa?"  It's planted along one of the trails in my community. 

Handwashing clothes with a plunger

My latest experiment will probably convince my family that I've gone around the bend.  I've read about using a plunger for washing clothes in a couple different places (don't remember where) and thought I'd give it a try.  So I found a plastic container and bought a new plunger.

The system I've been experimenting with is to wash each day's clothing for one person as a batch.  I soak the previous day's clothing during the day and then spend about 10 minutes in the evening plunging and rinsing.  Each batch is hung up on the outdoor clothes line.  I'm wringing the water out of what is easy to wring and just letting the water drip out of the heavier items such as jeans. The rinse water is being used to water ornamental plants in the garden.  Not sure what I want to do with the soapy water.  My clothing is usually used as a hanky for any one of eight toddlers I spend my day with. 

At the beginning of the week the weather was very wet but I hung things out anyway.  I decided the rain water would rinse things out  a bit more.  By Thursday we had lovely warm weather and everything dried up quickly.  The laundry smells great too. 

I've been a little worried about getting a rash from the soap.  I make my own laundry soap with grated soap, soda and borax.  It hasn't been dissolving very well.  With my next batch I'm going to try pre-dissolving the soap mix in hot water before adding it to the clothing. 

I've used about 2-3 gallons of water for each batch, figuring about 12 gallons for 5 batches which is also usually one load of laundry.  The washing machine uses about 40 gallons on average per load (an old top loading model). So a savings of 25 gallons of water minimum plus electricity for the washing machine as well as the dryer.  It will be very interesting to see what difference it makes in the bills.  It would actually be a good thing if the water bill just stays the same.  It will be time to start watering the veggies soon.

Oh, and plunging the laundry is actually kind of fun.  Hmmm...maybe I need to get out more.

 

Rhubarb bread and other garden news

Yummy stuff!  Starting to have a really good crop of rhubarb.  Last weekend I made rhubarb-walnut bread.  Local ingredients:  milk, eggs (mom and dad's chickens), flour, walnuts and my rhubarb.  I've been eating it for breakfast this week. 

Other garden news:   

The sweet potatoes arrived.  I've planted them in 4 inch containers for now.  It's still pretty cold at night so they are being moved in and out with the tomatoes. 

The potatoes are growing like mad.  I've had to hill them several times now.  The ones in the garbage can are looking great.

The lettuce and spinach seedlings have their first true leaves.   Probably will start harvesting in a week or so.  A few will be transplanted from the cut-and-come again beds so that they can grow to full size.  There are two small heads of lettuce that could be picked (bought as starts).  Should plant more lettuce seed tomorrow.    

Beans (shell varieties-decided to plant those first as they need a longer season) will probably pop tomorrow if the forecast for heat is right.  They've pushed themselves up to the surface.  This weekend the rest of the beans need to be planted. 

A few volunteer  squash of some sort are coming up outside.  It's always a tough decision as to whether to leave them and see what comes, or to pull them out.  The winter squash that were started inside are starting to germinate. 

The tomatillios I planted aren't doing anything.  Mom has beautiful starts, so I think I'll have to snag some of hers. 

Now I just need to do something about the slugs and snails....